NOTES ON SOME NATIVE TRIBES OF AUSTRALIA. 129 
reader is referred. When the victim falls, the avengers 
make a sudden charge upon him, and portions of his skin, 
flesh and fat are secured, the hands being sometimes cut 
off and carried away. If any ofthe man’s friends interfere 
in his behalf, they render themselves liable to the same 
punishment. The invaders then retreat to their camping 
place of the night before, where they dance and spit around 
the marked tree, for the purpose of withdrawing the magic 
which it had absorbed from their former incantations and 
necromancy. After this they pick up any food or baggage 
which they had left there, and start on their homeward 
journey. On getting back to their own people, a full 
account is given of the result of the expedition. 
Among the tribes herein referred to, the Magellanic 
clouds are supposed to be two native companions, the 
larger cloud being the cock bird, the smaller represen- 
ting the hen. When these clouds are at their lower 
culmination, and consequently are not easily seen in 
thickly timbered country, the aborigines have a superstition 
that there is danger of neighbouring tribes organising a 
guré party, to avenge some real or imaginary bloodshed. 
At such times, therefore, unusual vigilance is exercised 
by the young men, in watching the movements of their 
enemies. 
I—Nov. 7, 1906. 
